Amazon.com celebrates ‘best ever’ holiday season
SEATTLE — Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. called this holiday season its "best ever," saying Friday that it saw a 17 percent increase in orders on its busiest day — a rare piece of good news in a season that has been far from merry for most retailers.
Amazon customers ordered more than 6.3 million items on Dec. 15, compared with roughly 5.4 million on its peak day last year, the company said. It shipped more than 5.6 million products on its best day, a 44 percent rise over 2007, when it shipped about 3.9 million.
Amazon did not provide dollar figures and wouldn’t say whether the average value of orders changed. The jumps it reported Friday are in line with increases Amazon has seen since 2002.
Analysts agreed the report was good news for Amazon, but they were divided over whether the results indicate strength in online commerce in general.
Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said Amazon’s experience shows the economy is favoring discount retailers, both online and offline.
"The Amazon story doesn’t surprise me because Amazon has always traditionally been a leader on price, and they’re one of the first places consumers go when they’re looking for things online," Mulpuru said no teletrack payday loan. "In many ways they’re like the Wal-Mart of the online world."
Wal-Mart is one of a few traditional retailers where revenue has risen this season over last.
Holiday sales typically account for 30 percent to 50 percent of a retailer’s annual total, but rising unemployment, home foreclosures, the stock market decline and other economic worries led many shoppers to slash their shopping budgets this year.
SpendingPulse — a division of MasterCard Advisors — said its preliminary data show online sales fell 2.3 percent compared with the 2007 season, while retail sales overall fell 5.5 percent to 8 percent, including sales of cars and gasoline. The decline was 2 percent to 4 percent when auto and gas sales are excluded.
Spokeswoman Sally Fouts said the company would release revenue results in its fourth-quarter earnings report, due in about a month. But she said this was Amazon’s "best season ever."
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